billsfan89

I think it can work too but I also think that against better defenses in the playoffs this team is going to need boundary WR's to make plays. I don't think trying to get someone in who defenses will respect more and who can be a good to guy when needed is a bad idea. But that's also easier said than done.

I would still like to get a quality boundary WR. Not sure how or who fits that description but I think teams are going to get centered around daring the Bills to beat them on the boundary. Stack the box and take away the middle as much as possible, leave the corners on an island one on one and give them that. I think Olave or another much better than average WR would be a big trickle down benefit for the offense.

Everyone eats is fine but there is a reason why most teams do try to get a true "WR1" on the boundary. The Bills have an offense where much like the start of last season teams are going to dare the Bills to throw to the boundary. Stack the box to stop the run, gear the passing defense to take away the middle and leave the corners one on one to handle the outside WR's and give them that. As much as people looked at Cooper's stats last season and said he was a bust there was a reason why his acquisition correlated to the team being much better on offense. Teams for the most part respected Cooper enough to not always leave him one on one. It made a big difference to how the offense could operate. The Bills need that consistent boundary WR to make the offense flow. Once the offense consistently scores the pressure is off the defense and it even improves the defense as later in games teams have to become more one dimensional.

These All-22 reviews make me think the biggest issue isn't maybe needing a big piece on the defense (although I think adding a competent corner will help) but once again is needing an outside WR teams will respect. Keon's improving but he's still very much up and down, Palmer is OK but teams are clearly just OK with him being given one on one matchups, Shakir is a slot machine but not someone whose going to consistently win on the boundary, Kincaid is a TE not gonna be a consistent boundary guy, and Samuel and Moore are more gadget WR's. I think largely the defense is flawed and adding a piece in the secondary will help, but the defense isn't a competent corner or an upgrade over Rapp away from being a dominant top 5 unit either. The PED Twins, Ed, Mad Max, and maybe a starting caliber piece added via trade will help a lot but this defense isn't going to be elite most likely. But the offense getting a Chris Olave type boundary WR would make this offense truly unstoppable. Teams would have to respect the boundary WR's much more consistently. I think an offense that can consistently score with the best of them helps the defense too as it make offenses one dimensional which makes this defense so much more potent. Besides Olave whose a concussion risk I am not sure what other teams have WR's that fit what the Bills need and are bad teams willing to trade a good WR?

All the players besides, Tre are PS slots. Are we thinking a PS caliber corner is making the difference? This teams fortunes aren’t made or broken by marginal PS slots

I do think Mad Max will get back but he’s probably not gonna get his 21 day window opened until after the bye. Which probably puts a return within 2-3 weeks after the bye. Not ideal as that’s gonna put him coming back around week 10/11. But that at least gets him roughly 6-7 games to get his legs under him. That being said it’s very clear that the defense could use a piece. I don’t what the ideal piece is.

I honestly don’t care that they are getting too worked up about mostly PS spots. I think having vets on the PS isn’t a bad thing. Good for the locker room and for younger players. Tre is the only retread getting meaningful snaps. And even then they drafted a corner in round 1 (as well as a second later round corner) to try to avoid having Tre start. This is just reaching for something to be mad about. Plenty other things to get worked up on.

The Bills need a WR on the outside that can separate consistently. Kincaid has been a nice target but he's not an outside separator and Keon's just not that boundary WR just yet and may just be more of a contested catch guy. Shakir is more of a zone breaker slot WR and Palmer's competent by far from dynamic. Samuel is more of a gadget guy. If it were up to me I would strongly be in the market for a Chris Olave trade. The Bills if they were to have a WR core of Olave/Keon on the outside Shakir in the slot with Palmer as a pure WR4 and Samuel as a gadget player I think they would be much more dynamic and consistent at WR. It's not as bad as the WR core was before they traded for Cooper last year but they need a big punch up at WR. I would strongly consider a 2nd round pick swap with a 5th rounder to get Olave.

Diggs was that good in a revenge game. Maye was OK, but it really was the Diggs show unfortunately.

I don't think the Refs were helpful to the Bills. Seemed like esp in the first half the Bills got a lot of borderline calls against them and the Pats seemed to not get a lot against them. I know that ref crew the Bills have a lower winning percentage with too. But the main reason the Bills lost were the 3 turnovers compared to the Pats 1. If the Bills turned the ball over one less time and get a field goal on one of those drives the Bills probably get that game into OT. If the Bills get 6 points on those turnover drives they are up 6 with NE needing a TD to score and putting the Bills in a more favorable position to win. The Bills get a TD and a FG on those drives the game is a double digit win. The Refs didn't help but they weren't the main factor, and the Bills losing the turnover margin by 2 means that having an unfavorable whistle is something that can further tip the game.

Ingram isn’t that bad for a CB 4/5. Shows how depth is improtant.

Mid November would place him at 6ish more weeks and give him plenty of time to ease into game action

I think they will activate his window in the ramp up to the Panthers game but probably give him the full 21 days to get more comfortable on the leg and get some reps under him.

Jaruon was the expert at the moral victory. The 2006 Bills for example were 7-9 that year and 6 out of the 9 losses were by one score (3 wins out of 7 were also by one score). The Jauron era Bills were also masters at winning games towards the middle end of the season to crawl at or close to .500 and on the fringes of the playoffs to only lose the last two weeks of the season or something to just not even make it interesting in the last week of the season even as a long shot. McD for all the Jauron comparisons had a very different pre-Josh 2017 season. The Bills that year if they lost tended to lose big. They lost 7 games in the regular season that year. Of those 7 losses on 2 were by a single score (and 4 out of those 5 multi-score losses with 3 possession losses). Of the Bills 9 wins only 3 were by 2 score margins. So they either won close games or lost by blowout. Whereas Jauron's teams usually had less blowout losses and more blowout victories for some weird reason. Just weird how the NFL works, hard to win in it... The 1 seed is such a tremendous advantage. I would also argue having nothing to play for in week 18 if you aren't getting a bye is a big advantage too. The Bills in 2024 had the two seed locked week 18 and got to rest everyone. Whereas the 2023 Bills had to play down to the wire to get the 2 seed. The 2023 team seemed to be a lot less healthy and more gassed by the divisional round. KC on the other hand was locked into the 3 seed so they rested in week 18 in 2023.

More so they are just not a very relevant team 2021 was the last year they made the playoffs. Since Brady left they have missed the playoffs 4 out of the last 5 years. Their last 3 years win totals have been 8/4/4. They do look like they have a direction with Maye so I think longer term there's some developments there. But in the end the reason you don't know them is that it's been a fairly irrelevant franchise. I do recognize a few names on that list. Baremore was the last Billy B defensive guy I remember getting drafted and having an impact, Milton Williams was a big contract they signed from the Eagles and Campbell was the 4th overall pick. So I recognized a few names. I also know our old friend Diggs is on the Pats and Hunter Henry was a name that's been around the league awhile.

He's also 41 and coming off a torn knee. His leg is still good but he looks to not have the power he once did pre-injury at age 40.

2022 that team was both massively hurt (even beyond the Von injury) and flawed (Offensive line issues and no WR2 or any help outside of Diggs at pass catcher). Hyde went down early and that hurt the defense. Pretty much the entire D-line was hurt going into that Bengals team. It was the Bills "year from hell" they just had two star talents on offense (Diggs and Josh) and enough depth on defense to patch it together and go 13-3. But that team was just not destined to go the distance that year even if Von was healthy.

I don't get dicey on Prater until he gets past the low 50's. 50-52 I think he's got the leg to hit those pretty consistently, 53+ that's going to be a harder sell for me, he's probably not going to be able to even attempt anything much past 55.

Thursday games are very very funky. Teams don’t have the rest they need and these games just are always extra unpredictable. That being said yes it’s hard to blowout even the worst team in the NFL

It won't be as drastic, a mid 2nd round pick being out performed by an early 4th rounder is not shocking. Sanders looks OK which is not bad for a rookie. Walker looks like a steal but the question with Walker wasn't talent for the most part it was health.

Even just being a bit banged up is helpful. Pats are fairly healthy, Bills mostly healthy too outside of some dings and the suspensions and Mad Max injury.

The issue with Bass was that he was so piss poor at times where he just really felt very unreliable even when he was making shots they always felt like they would barely squeak in. But then Bass would go on hot streaks and hit kicks solidly and consistently. Prater feels more stable but I am not sure his range at his age is what it used to be. I personally would rather have a Prater type kicker whose going to have more stability under 50 than Bass whose got longer range but is more volatile.

Davis looks ineffective, Ty looks OK, but Ty last year went through spells where he was less than impactful and then every 4-5 games would pop off a big game. Davis on the other hand was always a consistently decent backup when called up. This year I wouldn't say he looks "shot" but he looks a lot less impactful. I know Cook is cooking but this team needs to find a way to keep Cook's touches down in the early going to preserve him for the post-season. And if Davis is not cutting it and Ty's a role player I am not sure what the Bills do at RB? A little too early to panic, lets see how the next two games play out.

Getting Ed and Milano back would be a nice shot in the arm for the defense. Dorian sitting is not bad either might need a mental reset after a really bad NOLA game.

This is a massively important game. Reminds me of the first Jets game last season in MetLife. Jets were 2-3 coming off some games they probably could have won. Bills were 3-2 coming after back to back losses after the 3-0 start. A win and the Jets tie the divisional race and get some momentum back. A loss for the Bills put them at .500 and in second place. The Bills won and got to 4-2 placing them 2 games ahead of the Jets, they made the Cooper trade a couple of days later and as much as people in retrospect didn't like the Cooper trade and didn't see the value in it, the offense was completely changed by the trade even if Coopers stats weren't the best. That was the pivot point for the season. Bills went 4-2 and then rattled off a bunch in a row and had the division sown up by late November. Jets lost 6 of the next 7 and went nowhere.